'He needs to ask himself why we need to protest.'

Chris Ison/PA Archive
Richard Benyon came under fire from the disability rights group

A Tory MP has been forced to backtrack on criticism of a disability protest after he sparked a backlash online.

Richard Benyon posted a picture of campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts blocking Westminster Bridge on Wednesday and claimed they were disrupting traffic by “sitting down” on the central London bridge.

After spotting the protesters, Benyon sent a post branding them a bunch of charmers.

But after fierce criticism, he deleted the tweet.

The now-deleted post

Linda Burnip, founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, led the charge of criticism against Benyon telling the BBC: “I think he needs to ask himself why we need to protest and block roads rather than be rude to us.”